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Online 3 Oct 05 That's the spirit! Lee U-Wen u-wen@newstoday.com.sg Volunteering is no longer compulsory but that hasn't stopped many JC and Centralised Institute students INCENTIVES or not, it seems most students in Singapore will go the extra mile for a good cause — depending on what it is. It was back in March when Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced changes to the Community Involvement Programme (CIP) scheme. Fulfilling the six-hour minimum for CIP is now no longer compulsory for Junior College and Centralised Institute (CI) students, but will remain so for primary and secondary students. The move was meant to encourage students to volunteer on their own accord, rather than doing so simply because they had to. Six months on, Today conducted a straw poll of 10 organisations to see if they had suffered a shortfall of volunteers — in particular from the JC cohort. Nine of them either saw no change — or said they even had an increase in such volunteers. Take the Heartware Network, for instance. Its chairman Raymond Huang said he has not seen a drop in his volunteers in the last six months. "JC students have continued to come forward and sign up on our website, and through their schools to volunteer for projects they believe will be fun and enriching," he said. Earlier this year, Heartware's volunteer network sought JC students to be motivators for the National Day Parade celebrations. No fewer than 250 of them responded to the call, which pleased Mr Huang. Another body that relies heavily on tertiary-level volunteers is the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. Each year, it invites them to participate in its Volunteer e-Filing Service to help taxpayers in their e-filing. This year, 70 per cent of its 500 volunteers were tertiary students, up from 61 per cent last year. A spokesman said that as a form of recognition, those with outstanding performances are given commendation awards. . Two-thirds of the 24 award recipients this year were students. One organisation that's feeling the pinch, however, is the Singapore Environment Council's Green Volunteer Network. At the start of the year, it had 2,000 registered student volunteers, mostly from secondary schools and JCs. But now, said its head Grant Pereira, that number has fallen drastically. "Every green club that's under my network has seen its membership drop by half," he told Today. Looking on the bright side, Mr Pereira, who is in his 50s, said that he's at least managed to weed out those who were not sincere about volunteering in the first place. "I fully understand their point of view, which is, 'If I didn't have to do something that's necessary, why should I?' They have their own schoolwork to do, which to them might be more important," he said. Even among those that have not "resigned" from the green clubs, Mr Pereira added that he usually gets no more than 50 active volunteers for each of his activities. "Student volunteers are very picky. Many only want to serve in an air-conditioned environment, and others only want to volunteer if the task is a high-profile one. "I'm okay with it, but we'll always welcome more sincere volunteers. They're endangered here." Mr Gerard Tan, a senior social worker at Tanjong Pagar Family Services Centre, has learned not to rely solely on CIP students for his centre's activities. "Once their six-hours are used up, they usually disappear," said Mr Tan. "If we want long-term volunteers, we get them from the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC). Working adults are more likely to commit on a longer basis." But while his younger batch of volunteers continue to commit, Mr Tan called for more tertiary volunteers to come forward, especially for activities such as flag days. "We're constantly on the lookout for more of them. Volunteers are the life blood of our organisation," he said. First introduced in 1997, the CIP scheme is now left up to each JC and CI to conduct on their own. The Ministry of Education, however, insists that CIP remains an integral part of the JC curriculum in providing a holistic education. links Related articles on Singapore: general environmental issues |
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